If approved by California voters on Nov. 3, Proposition 1A (The Class Size Reduction Kindergarten-University Public Education Facilities Bond Act of 1998) would provide the University of California with about $210 million per year for the next four years to fund facilities projects. Proposition 1A would provide $9.2 billion to strengthen, repair and build public education facilities in California. Of the total, $6.7 billion would be used to construct and renovate K-12 schools. The state's three segments of public higher education -- UC, the California State University and the California Community Colleges -- would equally share the remaining $2.5 billion in bond funds. Proceeds from Proposition 1A would provide about half of the amount necessary to fully fund UC's annual capital outlay needs in the coming years. Over four years, the bond would fund $92.2 million in construction projects for UC Davis (plus up to an additional $13 million for a UC Division of Agriculture project that would be housed on the Davis campus): * $21 million to construct a Plant and Environmental Sciences Building that would replace 40-year-old Hoagland Hall and 50-year-old Hunt Hall with state-of-the-art laboratories and offices. Because environmental issues underlie many of the fundamental problems facing agriculture in California, the campus is strengthening its programs at the interface of environmental and agricultural sciences. The new facility would foster that collaboration by bringing together faculty from both disciplines under one roof. * $45.5 million to construct a sciences laboratory building that will consolidate chemistry and biological science labs (and remove obsolete labs in three other buildings) and provide a 500-seat lecture hall, study spaces and a computer lab. * $4.7 million for alterations to life sciences labs in Hutchison and Robbins halls to meet modern standards. * $2.8 million to convert labs from dry to wet and to remodel support space in the Chemistry Annex building. * $1.5 million for preliminary planning for new and renovated veterinary medicine facilities, including classrooms, group-study rooms, research labs and offices, and an addition to the Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital. * $364,000 for preliminary planning and working drawings for a 400-seat technology classroom/recital hall with technology and acoustics sufficient for recording or broadcasting concerts, satellite links, interactive television and other distance-learning capabilities. * $9.3 million to expand campus electrical capacity and to remove a half-century-old substation. * $7 million to increase the campus's air-conditioning capacity by 50 percent (allowing the buildings at the far extensions of the core campus to be cooler in the summer) and to build a new "thermal energy tank" to store 4.3 million gallons of cold water. * up to $13 million to construct a contained research facility that would provide a controlled environment for the study of agricultural pests and diseases. The federal government would fund up to half of the project's cost. "This bond measure will help us to replace outdated facilities that lack the basic essentials of modern research and teaching, particularly in the environmental and veterinary sciences," said UC Davis Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef. "We have secured commitments for matching federal, private or campus funding for several of the projects, so Proposition 1A is even more critically important to the campus." Supporters of Proposition 1A include the UC Board of Regents, California Taxpayers' Association, California Chamber of Commerce and Congress of California Seniors. The ballot pamphlet argument opposing Proposition 1A was signed by People's Advocate Inc., the National Tax Limitation Committee and Assemblyman Tom McClintock, who maintain that the measure is too large and that this year's state budget surplus could have been used to pay for education facilities.